Glory Days
by onceuponanevilangel
Summary: When Emma, Henry, and Regina decided to vacation in New York, they figured they would finally have the chance to be a normal family for a while, away from all the fairy tale drama, but when they run into Emma's old boarding school buddy, Rick Castle and his homicide detective fiancee, Kate Beckett, their simple trip turns into a whole lot more.


**I have been writing and rewriting this for probably about a month now, but I think it's finally ready. This was written for mrs-swan-mills and unforjuliable on tumblr. This will have multiple parts, but I can't say I'll update regularly as I have quite a few other things I'm working on at the moment. Anyway, I hope you like it and remember, reviews are love!**

* * *

"So what do you say?" Castle asked as he walked up behind Beckett and wrapped an arm around her waist. "We can get out of here and go grab a burger for dinner. It looks like you need a break."

Beckett sighed and leaned into the embrace, but she didn't take her eyes off of the murder board in front of her. "I don't know. I really have to figure this out."

This particular case-a young woman who was found dead in her cousin's apartment-had only been open for a few hours and it was already driving Beckett nuts. The girl's ex-boyfriend was in the wind and they had hit a dead end with witnesses or suspects.

"Nah, get out of here," Esposito said from his desk. "You need a night off."

"Yeah," Ryan agreed. "We're tracking down the boyfriend now and we'll call you if we find anything."

"You guys sure?" Beckett asked.

"They're sure," Castle said. "Now come on. What are you in the mood for?"

"A burger sounds great actually. We can hit up that little diner over on 49th Street. They have great iced coffee there."

"Sounds like a plan." Castle guided Beckett over to the elevator and the pair headed out into the city.

* * *

"This is really good," Emma said, biting into her cheeseburger. "Like, _really _good. Even Granny's burgers aren't this good." Juice dripped down her chin and Henry giggled while Regina sipped her iced coffee and tried to hide a smile.

It had been over a year since Emma and Henry had last been in New York and with things finally calming down in Storybrooke, they had excitedly suggested a trip to the city to show Regina around. First stop: the small diner near what used to be their apartment.

The bell above the door chimed as someone new entered the diner, but they didn't pay the new arrivals any attention. Instead, Emma snaked her hand across the table and snagged a couple of French fries off of Regina's plate.

"Hey!" Regina exclaimed.

"What? You weren't eating them."

"Well maybe I was going to."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Well then eat them."

Regina didn't break her eye contact with her girlfriend as she picked up a single fry and ate it.

"Very mature," Emma said around a laugh. "I'm gonna go get another soda. You guys want refills?"

"Can I get another root beer?" Henry asked hopefully, throwing in a pair of puppy eyes for good measure.

"Fine with me. Regina?"

"I suppose," Regina said. She couldn't help the way her lips twitched upwards at Henry's grin. It had been quite a while since he had given his smiles away so freely and she was powerless against them.

"I'll go get them," Emma said. She grabbed her and Henry's empty glasses and walked up to the counter, squeezing in beside a couple sitting on the stools.

Castle turned when he felt someone kick his stool and a body slide in beside him. At first glance, there was nothing particularly different about the blonde woman, but she turned her hand to set the glasses down and out of the corner of his eye, he could see a familiar design inked on her wrist. He did a double take and instantly recognized the green eyes and golden curls.

"Emma?" he asked. "Emma Swan?"

"Do I know you?" Emma narrowed her eyes and examined his face, focusing on bright blue eyes that did seem oddly familiar.

"Rick Castle," Castle said. "We went to boarding school together?"

It took a moment for her to make the connection, but once she did, her face split into a huge grin. "Ricky? Wow! It's been forever!"

"I know, right? You haven't changed a bit though. Beckett." Castle tapped the woman next to him on her shoulder and when she turned around he gestured to Emma with a smile. "Kate, this is Emma Swan. We were friends when we went to the same boarding school for a while and you spent Thanksgiving with us that year too, right?" his eyes narrowed as he tried to recall the memory.

"Yeah," Emma said. She stuck out her hand and the other woman shook it. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Kate Beckett."

"She's my fiancée," Castle explained.

"Wow. Congratulations. That's awesome."

"Are you from around here?" Beckett asked.

"No, I actually live up in Maine now. I'm just down here for the week with my girlfriend and our son. They're over there." Emma pointed to the booth where Regina was trying to pretend like she wasn't watching the scene unfold by feigning extreme interest in her coffee while Henry devoured his fries. "In fact, we've got some room. Want to come over and catch up? It'd probably be more comfortable than the stools."

Castle turned back to Beckett and widened his eyes ever so slightly. Beckett rolled her eyes, but she couldn't hide her small smile. She looked past her fiancé to talk to Emma. "As long as we're not intruding on your dinner or anything."

"No, it's fine. Come on over." Emma grabbed the two glasses that the waitress had refilled while they talked and led Castle and Beckett over to the booth. She set the sodas back down and waited for Henry and Regina to look up before saying, "This is Regina, my girlfriend, and our son, Henry. Regina, Henry, this is Rick Castle and Kate Beckett. Rick and I went to boarding school together when we were kids."

"She was the only freshman I hung out with," Castle said with a grin.

"And he was pretty cool for a delinquent senior," Emma said, nudging his shoulder playfully. She sat down next to Henry. Castle slid in next to her, leaving Beckett to sit next to Regina.

Both women sat a little two stiffly while Emma and Castle immediately started reliving their glory days.

"Do you remember that time that we snuck into the library and papered the whole thing in pictures of Mick Jagger?"

"What about the Jell-O in the fish tank in the science room?"

"Nothing beats the time we got that Dean kid to help us take apart the headmaster's car and reassemble it in his office."

"Did you guys really do all that?" Henry asked.

"Sure did, kid. Man, we were good," Emma said. "Plus your mother thought I was adorable, so when my foster parents couldn't come get me for Thanksgiving break, she took me in. The turkey was kind of overdone, but it was one of the best Thanksgivings I've ever had."

Beckett shifted slightly in her seat and her badge caught the light and glittered.

"Are you a police officer?" Regina asked. Emma was always good at making friends and meeting new people and while Regina was great at first impressions, she didn't do so well when forced to make conversation with someone.

"Detective actually," Beckett replied, grateful for the break in the awkward silence on their side of the table. "I work in homicide. What do you do?"

"I'm actually the mayor of Storybrooke, Maine."

"I don't think I've ever heard of that."

"I'm not surprised," Regina replied.

The two women watched as Emma and Castle relayed their tales of adventure, danger, and making grape Jello-O in a fish tank to a wide-eyed Henry."

"I swear it sometimes feels like I'm living with two children rather than one," Regina said. Her tone was joking and Beckett picked up on it immediately.

"I know the feeling. Does Emma ever pull the puppy eyes on you to try to get you to do something?"

"Yes!" Regina exclaimed. "I can't even tell you how many things she's guilted me into like that. And she and Henry will gang up on me too if they want something."

"Wow. One set is bad enough. I can't even imagine living with two."

"You don't want to," Regina said. She took a sip of her coffee and smiled. Most of the tension between them had dissolved and Regina almost found herself enjoying the other woman's company.

"How long are you here for? You should come by. My mother would be thrilled to see you again."

"Right now I'd say a week, but there's a lot of stuff going on back home that I'd rather avoid, so maybe a little longer?"

"Where are you staying?"

"Well, the reservations for our first hotel fell through, so we've actually gotta duck out soon and find somewhere to stay."

"Why don't you just stay at the loft tonight?"

"What is this? Twenty questions?" Emma joked.

"No, I'm serious. We've got enough room, Mother would love to see you, we can spend some more time catching up, and I happen to have a bottle of that really good scotch we had at the winter formal that year."

That was enough to sell Emma. "What do you think, kid?" she asked, turning to Henry.

"I think that sounds awesome!" Henry exclaimed. Castle chuckled and Emma leaned over to ruffle the boy's hair.

"I mean, that's if it's okay with Regina and your fiancée," Emma said, gesturing across the table to where the two other women had hit it off and were talking animatedly about something.

"Beckett," Castle said, rapping his knuckles on the table to get her attention. She turned with a glare, clearly irritated that he had interrupted her conversation. "Hey, can they come stay with us at the loft while they're in the city?"

"I don't know," Beckett said, glancing from Castle to Regina. "I mean, if they want to, I suppose it's fine with me."

"Can we, Mom?" Henry asked, breaking out his best puppy eyes.

"Yeah, can we, babe?" Emma asked, matching her son's expression.

Regina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "I suppose so," she said with an overdramatic sigh.

"Awesome!" Emma exclaimed.

"This is gonna be so much fun," Castle replied.

_Yeah. _Emma thought to herself. _He really hasn't changed a bit._

* * *

"I do have to warn you," Castle said before opening the door to the loft. "My mother is a bit…eccentric."

"I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle," Regina replied with a gracious smile. She barely caught Castle mumbled "That's what you think," as he opened the door and stepped inside.

"Damn, Ricky," Emma said. Her eyes took in every detail of the spacious apartment. Sure, she was living in a mansion back in Storybrooke, but this was upscale living at its finest. She heard movement in the kitchen and looked over to see a woman standing at the counter, pouring a glass of wine. When the woman turned around, she almost dropped her glass.

"Mother," Castle said quickly. "This is Regina, Henry, and…"

"Emma Swan," Martha said.

"Hi," Emma said shyly. Martha set her glass down on the counter and hurried over to wrap the blonde in a hug.

"Hello darling. It's been far too long. How are you doing? You look good."

"I'm great, Martha. Thank you." When Martha finally released her, Emma gestured toward Regina and Henry. "This is my girlfriend and our son. We're just here on vacation and we ran into Rick at a diner and here we are."

"Hello," Martha said with a warm smile. "Richard, why didn't you call me? I would have worn something nicer and made our guests something to eat."

"Mother, you look fine and I'm sure they're tired anyway. You can impress them tomorrow."

"Fine," Martha huffed. "Oh. Alexis called. She's not coming home until tomorrow night. She's out celebrating a friend's birthday tonight."

"Who's Alexis?" Emma asked.

"My daughter," Castle replied.

"You have a daughter?"

"You have a son."

"Well yeah, but you have a daughter? How old is she?"

"Twenty-one. She's going to Columbia, but she's coming home this weekend so you'll be able to meet her."

"Henry, if you go upstairs, the first door on the left is a bedroom," Beckett said. "You can stay in there if you want."

"Awesome," Henry said. "Night moms."

"Good night, Henry," Regina replied.

"Night, kid." Emma watched him run up the stairs before turning back to Castle. "You mentioned scotch?"

* * *

The next time Emma looked at the clock, three hours had disappeared. Martha had gone up to bed shortly after they had arrived and now Emma and Castle were sitting at the table with the bottle of scotch between them and glasses in their hands. Regina and Beckett had migrated over to the kitchen counter and were leaning against it with glasses of red wine next to them.

A lull in their conversation had Emma and Castle glancing over at their respective girlfriends and if Emma's eyes started to wander a little, it was only because of the scotch. She turned back to Castle who was pouring himself another drink.

"Damn, Ricky, you did pretty good."

Castle chanced another glance over to the two women at the counter. This time, though, they caught him staring and Beckett gave him a sharp look while Regina just smirked and took a sip of her wine. He turned back to Emma with a boyish grin. "Doesn't look like you did too bad yourself."


End file.
